Gilded Gingerbread Reindeer Cookies

Sweetopolita posted these cookies just before Christmas and my daughter and I became obsessed with trying to make our own versions. They're so simple and classic, yet cute and whimsical. I love making Christmas cookies, but I always like to make them unique and unpredictable; these gilded gingerbread reindeer head cookies definitely fit the bill.

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Close-up of the golden antlers and pink Sixlet noses

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Still learning how to work with luster dust...

As you can see from the close-up above, I'm still experimenting with luster dust. I wanted the sparkle of Rosie's (from Sweetopolita), and actually achieved it on some. But, it was also my first time working with a Gold gel color and I got a little heavy-handed. The color was still gorgeous, but I think it made the luster dust harder to see just because it was such an intense color. 

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Hand-drawn eyelashes make these cookies even more elegant

Decorating these cookies is pretty straight-forward. I began with the flooding the outline of the reindeer in white (using an Ateco #2 tip) and followed up with the antlers in Gold (using an Ateco #1.5 tip). After letting them sit for about two hours, I went back and added additional white icing to the reindeer's noses to hold the pink Sixlet noses in place. The next day, I drew on the eyelashes using a food marker (though this could be done with a very fine piping tip and black icing, too). 

Here's a list of the materials I used:

• Royal icing: AmeriColor Gel Paste colors (Bright White and Gold)
• Luster dust (used on antlers): Wilton Luster Dust (Gold)
• Nose: Sixlets (Pink)
• Eyelashes: AmeriColor food marker (Black)

And, of course, the cookies and icing recipes: GINGERBREAD COOKIES and FAVORITE ROYAL ICING

Gingerbread Cupcakes

Fine. I admit it. I only made these cupcakes because I wanted to make little gingerbread people out of chocolate fondant. No regrets there. That said, these cupcakes did turn out to be pretty amazing, with or without garnish. 

I realized while taking these pictures that I was so excited for the finished product that I didn't bother taking any photos of the process. I don't know. If you're like me, I usually skip those pictures on other blogs and go straight for the recipe or other fun shots of the fully decorated, cutely arranged cupcakes or cookies. I mean, those are the ones I'm going to pin to Pinterest (am I right?).

Can I just tell you that these little round sprinkles used as buttons on the gingerbread people continue to haunt me? Sure, they're adorable, but they're so small...let's just say several were dropped and every once and a while, someone in my family randomly kicks one that was missed and you can hear it rolling all across the hardwood floor, mocking me for being clumsy in the first place. Would I use them again? Heck yes -- look at how cute!

Click here for the full recipe: GINGERBREAD CUPCAKES